My Generation

[Shadowrun]

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I know soooo many people that were handed a silver platter of life, even when it meant the parents livelyhood would suffer. This includes getting a cell phone, ipod, laptop, car and many more extra's that this generation thinks is mandatory.


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I have been really surprised at the number of 20-somethings who have confided in me that their parents actually bought them a new car in h.s. or in college. My mom would never have done this even if she could have.

I've learned that in some towns (smaller towns in the midwest) it is common for families to buy their kids cars in h.s. It's almost peer pressure for the parents. Pretty crazy! Hope these kids remember their parents' generosity when they are old.

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Weird word choice, why would they need to "confide" as opposed to just telling you?

I lived in 2 states growing up NY and Illinois in NY I didnt have a car b/c i didnt need one (public transportation everywhere), however in Illinois everything is much more spread out. So when we moved, and I got a car (cheap one) as did almost all of my friends since everything was so far apart.

[Kimbell175113]

Haha, Shadowrun, I was thinking that, too.

"Listen, katy, I have to tell you something. And I'm assuming you know that this stays between us. Anyway, once... when I was about 15... my dad came into my room, sat down on my bed, and he, well, he... handed me the keys to a brand new Focus."

[midnightpulp]

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In the 60's and 70's, many parents wanted to kill or jail their kids or send them off to a war -- pretty much any war would have been good enough -- or at least do the same to someone else's. There was real intergenerational warfare and anger, and it was a terribly stupid and selfish way to live and think.

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Why was there more intergenerational warfare during these decades? Did it have to do with the drug culture and the hippy attitudes or something? I guess to some degree I thought all generations had some intergenerational anger going.

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I would assume so. The values of late 60s youth was a radical departure from the "God and Country" values of the Brokaw's "Greatest Generation."

On a side note, Hippie is actually a derogatory tern coined by the Beatniks, which means phony Hipster.

I don't see a great departure in the mores from Gen-X to Gen-Next. To me, Gen-Next just seems more culturally apathetic, thinking the crap in their self-contained world as the be-all, end-all of quality. Also they think that world to be somehow unique when in reality it's a patchwork of appropriation from other trends.

For example, Emo music. I understand the concept of subjective taste and all that, but there's no way in hell one of those bands is as great as a band like "The Velvet Underground." But a whiny Emo brat will likely fight you to death trying to prove his stupid band of choice is somehow better.

I guess like all youth, today's kids don't really have all that much of historical perspective.

And remember, this is a generalization. Lot of knowledgeable 20-somethings out there.

[Kimbell175113]

That "60's youth" is a lot more removed from me than it seems. I sometimes assume anyone older than me remembers when Kennedy was shot, but really, my mom was born in 1964. Kennedy was dead, Sylvia Plath was dead (hey, it matters to me, but you can pick whomever, you know what I'm saying). By the time my mother was the age I am now, it was, well, the 80s, and that just doesn't carry quite the historical weight.

It's definitely true that I don't feel as connected to history, especially WWII, as the previous few generations. Conspire, or other young whippersnappers, confirm?

[Blarg]

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Blarg, I think you are mostly right, but it doesn't really help to compare a bad song from one time period with a great song from another.

When I am old and cranky and telling my nephew how much his music sucks, I'm sure as [censored] not going to use John Mayer as my example of music from the aughts.

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It's the general impetus I'm comparing, and I think that's more important than how good the song is. There's only ten lines in Young's song that matter, and the unprinted but extremely corrosive chorus ("How many more?"). It's all about the passion and integrity, and what inspire them. Whatever Mayer can muster up as far as passion and integrity, it's a complete embarrassment.

Mayer's song was a big hit.

[Blarg]

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wow...you must have done too much drugs in our Neil Young days. first of all, there was plenty of crap music in "our generation", to pick out one of the better groups and songs is a ridculous comparison.

However, you should understand exactly what John Mayer is saying because you lived through it, but still dont get it. His point is, that just like us in the 60s/70s, the younger generation holds no power and is helpless to do anything. All of the protests and marches and SDS and Black Panthers meant nothing. The "waiting" JM is talking about is not waiting for someone to do something FOR him/them, its waiting until the generation has the power to do something for themselves and the world. Hopefully this younger generation grows up better than John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi.

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This is not a good reading, and not a courageous, involved, or moral one, at all. Any coincidence you picked two democrats? I'd wager it was a lock.

[Blarg]

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In the 60's and 70's, many parents wanted to kill or jail their kids or send them off to a war -- pretty much any war would have been good enough -- or at least do the same to someone else's. There was real intergenerational warfare and anger, and it was a terribly stupid and selfish way to live and think.

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Why was there more intergenerational warfare during these decades? Did it have to do with the drug culture and the hippy attitudes or something? I guess to some degree I thought all generations had some intergenerational anger going.

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I hardly know what to say to this, but it fills me with dread that you would ask. Unfortunately, our history has been so ignored and whitewashed that it doesn't seem as out of place as I would hope. I'm not sure what I can say that is constructive and doesn't sound mean, and I like you very much Katy, so I'm just going to sit on your comment and questions for a while and hope that someone can find something constructive to say before I am forced to come up with something that tries not to alienate you but fails, or takes 45 paragraphs, or both. I like you too much to be mean, and don't know how to prescribe an entire program of reading and cultural awareness in response to a simple question.

[Copernicus]

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wow...you must have done too much drugs in our Neil Young days. first of all, there was plenty of crap music in "our generation", to pick out one of the better groups and songs is a ridculous comparison.

However, you should understand exactly what John Mayer is saying because you lived through it, but still dont get it. His point is, that just like us in the 60s/70s, the younger generation holds no power and is helpless to do anything. All of the protests and marches and SDS and Black Panthers meant nothing. The "waiting" JM is talking about is not waiting for someone to do something FOR him/them, its waiting until the generation has the power to do something for themselves and the world. Hopefully this younger generation grows up better than John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi.

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This is not a good reading, and not a courageous, involved, or moral one, at all. Any coincidence you picked two democrats? I'd wager it was a lock.

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No, its the correct reading. And why wouldnt I pick two anti-war Dems from my generation who epitomize exactly what I (and John Mayer) was talking about?

[Blarg]

Looks like we have nothing to talk about.

[katyseagull]

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Why was there more intergenerational warfare during these decades? Did it have to do with the drug culture and the hippy attitudes or something? I guess to some degree I thought all generations had some intergenerational anger going.

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I hardly know what to say to this, but it fills me with dread that you would ask. Unfortunately, our history has been so ignored and whitewashed that it doesn't seem as out of place as I would hope. I'm not sure what I can say that is constructive and doesn't sound mean, and I like you very much Katy, so I'm just going to sit on your comment and questions for a while and hope that someone can find something constructive to say before I am forced to come up with something that tries not to alienate you but fails, or takes 45 paragraphs, or both. I like you too much to be mean, and don't know how to prescribe an entire program of reading and cultural awareness in response to a simple question.

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God damn. I hardly know what to say to THIS. Sorry? It fills me with dread that I have to enter into an internet argument with you. But I'm going to give it one more shot! Actually I wish I had worded my post better but really Blarg, sheesharolla. I've worked a [censored]-load of hours this week on little sleep and I'm in a grumpy mood mister! [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]


When I said "intergenerational war" i thought we were discussing war within families and kids fighting with their own parents not kids fighting the establishment and govt policies.

What I am interested in is how each generation interacts with their own parents and why the parents respond the way they do. Hasn't every generation bucked their parents values to an extent? I find it hard to believe that the 60s generation was more at war with their own parents (talking about in isolated families) than any other generation. Obviously I understand the 60s generation was at war with the government and "establishment" but when you focus on isolated families was their really a war going on?


All kids reject their parents values to an extent. I just find it fascinating and perplexing why 60s kids did so more than any other generation and I find it hard to believe that parents of the 60s gen wanted to send their kids off to war. I'm confused!!

Yeah some kids were very outspoken and participated in organized demonstrations, vocally anti-establishment. But were the majority of kids doing this or is history colored by the vocal, politically aware minority?

ok, no one wants to read all this so do not feel you have to reply. Let's just let it go as me being a complete nincompoop. n/m. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]